LOS ANGELES – Greg Madux pulled on Dodgers blue garb instead of Padres blue garb. It only showed that clothes don't make the Hall of Famer.

The 42-year-old pitcher, facing the Padres 14 days after they traded him, assembled one of those Maddux games that makes baseball appear simple, and the Padres bore the brunt of it in losing 5-2 at Dodger Stadium last night.

Maddux, despite lacking his pinpoint control, dumped cold water on Padres hitters after they opened with three consecutive hits. The 17-time Gold Glover also snagged two comebackers that could have gone for singles, hit an RBI single off friend Chris Young and even slid hard into rookie second baseman Matt Antonelli.

“We've seen it for a year-and-half: He plays the game the right way,” Padres manager Bud Black said.

One of Maddux's many admirers among Padres, Young gave the Padres an emotional lift, Black said, by working five innings, even if he gave up four runs. Young hadn't appeared in a major-league game since he suffered a forearm strain on Aug. 10. The Dodgers led 4-1 when he left, but Black deemed it more important that the No. 2 starting pitcher reported no health concerns after the 80-pitch outing.

“I'm not happy with the result,” Young said. “I was a little bit rusty, made some mistakes, but I felt better as the game went along.”

Said Maddux: “He looked healthy. His delivery looked pretty good. It's hard to take the time off he's taken and then jump into it in September.”

Antonelli started at second base and batted eighth in becoming the 12th player to make his major league debut for the Padres this season.

In his first at-bat, Antonelli lined Maddux's 0-1 pitch for a single to center field. “I should have watched him more in spring training,” Maddux cracked.

Later in the second, the Padres needed Antonelli to make a highlight-caliber defensive play, and he was unable to make it. Angel Berroa's blooper to shallow center field went off his glove, resulting in an RBI double that broke a 1-1 tie with one out. Maddux, by swatting the first pitch to right field, followed with an RBI single off his former pupil Young, increasing the score to 3-1.

“Typical Greg,” said Young, who anticipated that Maddux would swing at his first pitch and blamed himself for not throwing a better one.

The only Padres player to steal a base in July, Maddux then showed he still means business on the basepaths by slamming into second base after third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff's muff gave him extra time.

Maddux's most pivotal pitch may have been a low changeup that Adrian Gonzalez swung over for strike three and the game's first out. It came after Kouzmanoff's single made it 1-0 and moved Luis Rodriguez to second. Building on that escape, Maddux eased onward until two-out doubles by Gonzalez and Kouzmanoff chased him in the sixth, with the Padres trailing 4-2.

The victory was Maddux's 354th, moving him alongside Roger Clemens for eighth on the all-time list. “It's cool, man,” he said. “Clemens was the best complete pitcher I ever had a chance to pitch against.”